Page 62 of The Librarian and the Rock Star

He nodded, contemplating, then checked his phone again, opening a text. He looked instantly delighted. “Kelly is a superstar,” he announced. “She has been flooding all of our social media, rallying our fans for help since there was a ‘server glitch’ that prevented our show from being posted on our main website, or sent to the email list until just now.”

I laughed. “Damn, that Kelly is brilliant.” I leaned back so our waiter could clear our plates, pondering what we could do to help.

I looked over at Jack, a plan forming. “You guys used to be media darlings, right?”

Jack frowned. “Yeah. Before Paul forbade us from doing meet and greets, and interacting with the fans so much.”

“We have a new mission. You said that you’re the face and voice of the band, so we are going to get that face into every Montreal fan’s media stream tonight.”

Jack looked at me blankly. “All we have to do,” I continued, “Is stroll around the city and chat with everyone. If you haven’t been seen around much lately, they will make a big deal about it. It can be a call to arms. Don’t let a computer glitch ruin your show – you see what I mean?”

He nodded. “We have all night, and I have a credit card. It certainly can’t hurt to try.”

I pulled out my phone, and went to a little known social networking filter that trend spotters use. Logging in with my library credentials, I was connected to their mapping software in minutes.

“What are you up to?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Trend spotters, marketers, and media people pay a lot of money for this complicated algorithm that sorts social media hits via hashtags, cross-referenced with locations, compiling them on a map so we can interpret the results.” He looked at me blankly.

“The more people are talking about a club, the more people are probably at the club,” I explained. “This map will tell us where the busiest neighborhoods are, and I can break it down by approximate age and vague demographic.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s far from perfect, but it’s somewhere to start. Basically, I just used the library’s access to pull up a rock and roll fan detector.” I giggled. “There is something I never thought I would hear myself say.”

Jack leaned across the table and kissed me, hard. “You are amazing. I’ve never had anyone in my life whose default reaction is to turn into problem-solving mode.”

I shrugged. “That’s how I’m wired.”

The server came by and offered Jack the machine to punch in his credit card code. After tucking the receipt into his wallet, he said, “Shall we begin our mission?”

He was already starting to use my phrases. My ‘too much too soon’ warning bell sounded again, but I turned it off.

I studied the map, tweaking the key demographic details a few times. “If we’re looking for people approximately nineteen to twenty-five, who have music or rock and roll listed in their profiles, there are two clusters – one to the northeast and one to the southwest. However,” I studied a few of the color codes. “The one to the northeast skews more female. The other one is almost exclusively male – likely a sporting event.”

Jack looked uncomfortable for a second. “You know there might be a bunch of girls throwing themselves at me, right?”

“Jealousy is illogical, remember?” I said as we got up to leave. “It’s totally fine. And quite frankly, right now filling that hall is a lot more important than our date. Let’s get to work.”

I took note of which venues had patios, at what intersections, choosing a route as we walked. Jack took my arm so th

at I wouldn’t bump into mailboxes or streetlights. I was surprised at how many specific fans popped up on the map. Jack was looking over my shoulder. “It actually tells you who is probably one of our fans?”

“Yes – if they’ve used one of the hashtags of your band in the past year. That’s why this software isn’t available to the general public. The stalking possibilities are outright creepy. But in this case, I think we could make an exception.”

As we approached a patio filled with rockers, hipsters, and party people well into their drinking for the evening, I heard a little shriek that was quickly becoming familiar.

“Oh my God, look!” A girl with spiky black hair was shaking her friend’s shoulder. When she spun around, her mouth fell open.

“It’s Jack!” shrieked the spiky-haired girl. Jack had been pretending to look in shop windows and turned when he heard his name.

The next hour and a half was a blur of dyed hair, piercings, black leather jackets, and hearing Jack’s name screamed by hysterical women. I took photos and told everyone about the big show while Jack signed autographs.

I explained about the ‘computer glitch’ and how it would really help Jack and the band out if they could all spread the word. It was truly touching how eager they were to help. It seemed to be a classic case of the little guy versus the big corporation, which is always a call to action.

Everyone wants to help out the little guy and stick it to the man, especially in the realm of rock and roll.

At first, I felt a bit guilty about using this technology for marketing, but it wasn’t like that at all. These people were absolutely thrilled to hear the news about the show, and livid that they had not been informed earlier. One girl in particular said she was going to send an email blast out to her five thousand subscribers right now.

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